by www.LSUsports.net, LSU Sports Interactive
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) -- Jarvis Varnado scored 19 points and Barry Stewart added 17 Saturday to lead surging Mississippi State into the championship game of the Southeastern Conference tournament with a 67-57 upset of No. 20 LSU.
The Bulldogs (22-12) began the week needing to win two or three times to improve their chances of getting a spot in the NCAA tournament. Now, they're in a position to claim the SEC's automatic berth with their first conference tourney title since 2002.
LSU (26-7) beat Mississippi State twice during the regular season, but were not match this time with SEC Player of the Year Marcus Thornton scoring 14 on 5-for-19 shooting and the Tigers shooting 31 percent overall.
The victory was the fifth straight for Mississippi State. LSU has lost three of four since clinching the SEC regular-season title.
A day after scoring 21 to lead LSU past Kentucky in the quarterfinals, Thornton was 0-for-6 on 3-point attempts. The Tigers misfired on 12 of 16 attempts from behind the arc as a team, giving Mississippi State a reprieve from its own poor shooting.
The Bulldogs, the league's best 3-point shooting team, were 3-for-16 and shot 33.3 percent overall.
Varnado had his way inside, though, making 7-for-13, grabbing seven rebounds and blocking seven shots to break the SEC single-season block record he shared with Shaquille O'Neal. The 6-foot-9 junior from Brownsville, Tenn., has 159 -- two more than he had a year ago.
The Bulldogs used a late 12-1 run to put the game out of reach, but might not have needed that if Varnado had been better from the foul line. He was 5-of-12, although Stewart took up the slack by going 10-of-12.
While no one really dominated the SEC this season, LSU has been the league's best team all season. The Tigers won both previous matchups against Mississippi State, trouncing the Bulldogs 81-57 in Baton Rouge on Jan. 21 and prevailing 97-94 in double overtime in Starkville on Feb. 11.
LSU won 10 straight before losing to Vanderbilt and Auburn the final week of the regular season, then began the SEC tournament with an impressive performance against Kentucky in the quarterfinals.
The Tigers weren't nearly as sharp against Mississippi State, but the Bulldogs probably had as much to do with that as anything.
With Thornton going 3-for-10, LSU shot 35.3 percent from the field in the opening half. Mississippi State was only slightly better at at 35.7 percent, but got 13 points from Varnado and led 31-29 at the break.
LSU trailed 51-46 after Thornton made a free throw with six minutes to go, and that was as close as the Tigers would get down the stretch. Varnado began Mississippi State's 12-1 run with a layup and Stewart finished it with four free throws that made 63-47.
Tasmin Mitchell led LSU with 15 points.
Game Notes
Mississippi State improves to 22-12, while LSU falls to 26-7.
The Bulldogs have won five straight in the month of March.
State is back in the SEC Tournament final for the first time since 2003 in New Orleans. The Bulldogs own two titles - 1996 and 2002, the latter under current head coach Rick Stansbury.
Stansbury upped his record to 13-9 in the SEC Tournament, while LSU's Trent Johnson falls to 1-1.
Mississippi State led 31-29 at the half, and the Bulldogs improve to 17-2 when leading at the break. LSU drops to 4-6 when trailing at intermission.
LSU claimed its first lead of the game at 19-18 with 7:16 remaining in the half. The led then changed hands seven more times before the break. There were 10 total lead changes in the game.
State replaced all five starters from the 13:44 mark of the second half to 8:54 and actually increased its lead from four (43-39) to six (49-43 during that nearly five-minute stretch.
State made its last six free throws and 10 of its final 11 to finish 24-of-35 (68.6 percent) from the line. LSU was 9-of-13 from the line.
LSU swept the regular season series, winning 81-57 in Baton Rouge on Jan. 21 and 97-94 in double overtime in Starkville on Feb. 11. LSU last swept three games from Mississippi State in the 1987 season.
Jarvis Varnado led all scorers with 19 points and added seven rebounds and seven blocks. He had 13 points at the half. Phil Turner scored six points and pulled down a game-high 11 boards.
LSU shot a season-low 31.0 percent (22-of-71) from the field. The Tigers' previous worst effort was 32.1 percent (17-of-53) this past Sunday in a loss at Auburn.
There were only 13 turnovers in the game - seven for LSU and six for State.
Mississippi State made just 3-of-16 (18.8 percent) from three-point distance. It was the fewest number of made threes and the worst percentage of the year for the Bulldogs.
LSU was paced by Tasmin Mitchell's 15 points, while Quintin Thornton was the rebounding leader with 10.
Better-seeded teams are 7-2 in this year's tournament. Mississippi State owns both "bracket upsets" thus far with wins over South Carolina and LSU.
Shooting in this year's first two rounds was 41.4 percent (448-of-1,083) from the field, 29.2 percent (99-of-339) from three-point distance and 72.8 percent (227-of-312) from the free throw line. The average score thus far is . Last season in Atlanta, shooting through the first nine games was 47.0 percent (494-of-1,050) from the field, 36.0 percent (135-of-375) from three-point range and 70.5 percent (310-of-440) from the line. The average score through eight games last year was 82-77.
LSU Quotes
CLAUDE FELTON: We'll begin with LSU. Opening comments from Coach Johnson.
COACH JOHNSON: Yeah. You need to tip your hat to Mississippi State. Thought they played well. Obviously, from looking at the stat sheet we didn't shoot the ball very well. We were outrebounding them. Our assist to turnover ratio is pretty good. We need 20.do a better job trying to attack the rim so we can get to the free throw line.
Q. Can you talk about the defensive effort? Just talk about what they did defensively on y'all?
MARCUS THORNTON: Going into every game they were trying to be physical with me and Tas. We know they're going in. We're just trying to get ourselves prepared for it, and tip your hat off of Mississippi State. They did a good job, and they won the game.
TASMIN MITCHELL: Me, personally, I don't think they did anything different. We just weren't making shots. Like Coach says, the stat sheet shows, sometimes we had good looks, sometimes we didn't. But it wasn't any different than they did. They just came out and played good basketball.
Q. Did you guys get a little frustrated in the second half? You know, just talk about the way the second half went?
MARCUS THORNTON: I think we kind of got unraveled at times. You know the calls weren't going our way every time. But you know, they beat us to loose balls. They did everything they had to do to win the game, and that's what happened.
Q. Was fatigue a factor at all? Just from watching, it looked like y'all were a step slow at times. Maybe at times you weren't. But there were some times it looked like y'all were a step slow?
MARCUS THORNTON: I wouldn't say that. You know, like I said, it all boils down to Mississippi State doing what they had to do to win the game. At times, we probably did look fatigue when they came at us. They're a run and gun team. We made a missed basket. They'd run the ball right at you and you've got to hurry up and get back on defense. So at times it was kind of tiring to be out there.
But it's a game we've got to play. And they won the game.
TASMIN MITCHELL: You know, sometimes, you know, I mean it's natural for a person, for a team to get a little fatigued. But I don't think we were that fatigued. Like Marcus said, they just came out and executed and did what they had to do. Our hats off to Mississippi State.
Q. As frustrating as this game is, can you talk about the excitement now of putting this behind you and playing in the NCAA Tournament for the first time?
MARCUS THORNTON: Yeah, when we leave we'll probably get it behind us. But until we leave I'm going to think about it. And I know Tas feels the same way. We both don't like to lose or whatever. But they won the game. We have to put it in the past and move on to the NCAA Tournament and try to make a run there.
Q. Can you talk about the presence of their big man? Are you aware of him every time you get into the paint?
MARCUS THORNTON: Like I said, you know, he's a great player. He didn't do nothing out of his character or whatever. Just made a couple of shots. I think down low Chris played good defense on him. He just made a couple of shots. You know, that was the termination of the game.
Q. I know that you said you're going to have to think about this moving beyond into the NCAA Tournament. Maybe a little bit after this game. But can you just talk about the season as a whole? You said you don't like losing. You didn't do a lot of that this season, and it's certainly a turn around from what you had experienced at LSU?
TASMIN MITCHELL: Yeah, you know, at LSU, losing is not the key, you know what I'm saying. The past two years we lost. But this year was a whole different year. Like I said, we don't enjoy losing, you know what I'm saying.
We haven't done it that much. But we have learned to deal with the losses, you know what I'm saying, that we have gotten and moved past it.
But like I said, and Marcus said, it's going to be hard for us to get past. I mean, it's going to be hard for us to really look ahead. We know what's ahead, but it's going to be hard for us to look ahead because Coach always taught us to think about the present. You know what I'm saying?
What we could have done to win the game. What we did do to win the game, things like that. Like next week or so, we might be happy to see where we're at in the NCAA Tournament. But right now we're just focused on this loss today.
MARCUS THORNTON: This season as a whole has been a blessed season. Who would have thought we'd be headed to the NCAA Tournament this year. After the termination of Coach Brady, Coach Johnson came in with a philosophy and we got right to it from day one. His resume speaks for itself.
He came in, did what he had to do, and we're headed to the tournament. This will be my first time going. This will be Tas's second time. You know, I'm just trying to take full advantage of it and enjoy it.
CLAUDE FELTON: We'll continue with questions for Coach Johnson.
Q. Tasmin and Marcus didn't feel they did anything special against them defensively, but they held them to much fewer points than in the regular season meetings. Can you just talk about what you saw on their defense against them?
COACH JOHNSON: Well, we found looking at the tape, I would agree with both the young men. I do recall certain situations in the first half and the second half I thought we had wide open jump shots that didn't go down. I thought Marcus attacked the rim pretty good in various situations.
I don't want to take anything away from Mississippi State. But Tasmin was 7 out of 18, and Marcus was 5 out of 19. I've got to believe that six, seven of those shots missed were good shots without looking at the tape.
Q. The disparity in fouls, I think you all got called for 26 and State 13. Does that kind of build frustration among your guys?
COACH JOHNSON: Well, I mean, you know, again, they're human. They're human, so, you know.
As hard as it is for me to say it, that's not what beat us. What beat us is our inability to execute, and Mississippi State's ability to make plays.
Q. This is the fourth straight game where you shot less than 40%. Is shooting a concern going forward into the NCAA Tournament right now? And what can you do there to maybe address that?
COACH JOHNSON: Well, what we can do to address it is not a concern. We're playing good teams and we're playing good players. So in terms of addressing it, we'll do what we've always done. We'll do what we did to win 26 games. We'll keep working on the same things.
Q. You have no control over this, but how will this loss affect your seeding, or should it affect your seeding?
COACH JOHNSON: I don't know. I don't put a lot of stock in worrying about that on or thinking about that. I try to worry about the things that I can control, and for us moving forward, the bottom line is we want to get out of here as soon as possible and get these guys back to have the day off.
And sometime tomorrow we'll be together as a group and watch the selection show and find out if we're going to play Thursday or Friday and move on from there.
Q. Some fans get irritated as they refer to the SEC Championship as the team that's won the tournament as opposed to a team that was successful in 26 games. Obviously, you feel that the 13 1 mark to wrap it up, that you guys are the champions and should refer to it as such carry weight in the tournament?
COACH JOHNSON: Full body of work always carries weight for me. Full body of work. Three days, two days, is that more important than two and a half months, three months?
Q. Along those lines, even with a loss today have you had any time to reflect that you're maybe one of the only SEC teams coming into this tournament that was already a lock for the NCAA Tournament? Have you been able to look at the season as a whole that you've been able to put together?
COACH JOHNSON: In all honesty, no, I haven't. You know, I've said on numerous occasions for some of the local writers here that I'm happy for them. But this is not my first opportunity. This is not my first rodeo so to speak.
So my responsibility and my job is to make sure they're on an even keel and playing ground. They've done a good job themselves without me having to worry about it. So to be honest with you we'll have plenty of time, I'll have plenty of time to reflect when this is all said and done.
Q. Can you talk about the play of Varnado? Was this the best he played of the three games you played Mississippi State?
COACH JOHNSON: I don't think so. I think that at Starkville he had 31. No, I don't think so I thought he was really, really good.
Q. The fouls mounted on your post players, how did that impact what you were trying to do in the game, trying to defend Varnado and their other players?
COACH JOHNSON: Well, they gave us problems on the perimeter. But for us to be in a situation where this basketball team has 67 points? I mean, I don't want to think the defense was the problem as much as it was we missed a couple of open shots here and there at crucial times. We lost our composure. So storm did a decent job, I thought Quinn did a decent job, and c j did a decent job.
You know, you look at the stats and you're talking about Varnado. They had 28 points in the paint, we had 26. So, there you have it.
Q. What is your feeling about Mississippi State moving on? Do you feel they're tournament worthy at this point?
COACH JOHNSON: My feeling about Mississippi State is the same feeling I had about Auburn. You know, we played this group double overtime in Starkville, and they gave us as many problems as anybody. You know, obviously Auburn and them are moving on. So, I feel Mississippi State in the West is pretty strong, wouldn't you think?
Mississippi State Quotes
CLAUDE FELTON: We'll ask Coach Stansbury for opening thoughts on the game.
COACH STANSBURY: I thought two really good basketball teams going at it. I'm not for sure either one of us were as good as we want to be offensively. But I think give each team some defensive credit. No question LSU's been one of the best defensive teams all year long. And as I've been saying from day one since being here first game, our team continues to get better defending the rebounding.
In the first two stats I can look at is again that rebounding war. We got rebounded bad against them a couple times tonight. It was one different rebound, we held the LSU team to 31% for the game; 27 in the second half.
And, again, that's the difference for us. Even those moments we struggled in scoring a little bit, and again, we probably missed some shots that normally we'd make. Probably were not as efficient from the free throw line as we'd been for the most part.
But our defending the rebound allowed us to get a little separation and find a way to win the basketball game. And these three guys right here were terrific.
Q. What was it like to go through the whole game with basically no fouls? You had one foul, none at halftime. Talk about having no foul trouble? How that affected your game the way you were able to play?
JARVIS VARNARDO: By not having no foul trouble. I mean I just went at Chris Johnson, and the rest of their bigs. I mean, I played loose. I was able to block a few shots and rebound the ball.
Q. You guys gave up a lot of points to Marcus and Tasmin in the regular season games, different games. Talk about the defense you guys played against them today. What was the plan relative to those two coming into the game?
PHIL TURNER: Tasmin Mitchell and Marcus Thornton are two great players. We just focused on defending and rebounding. And Jarvis made a great call into the game. Tasmin Mitchell was coming at me pretty tough and starting to get a rhythm in. And Jarvis said let me switch off on on him and throw a different look at him.
So we switched it up for a while on a couple of plays and he put me back on him so he couldn't get a rhythm going on me. I think that was a great call by Jarvis just seeing that during the game.
Q. When was that?
PHIL TURNER: Just during the game he made the call. I think Tasmin came down and hit two or three shots back to back on me. And Jarvis was like look, man, let me get him. And Chris Johnson, I think, was in the game, and we switched off like that. And I think that was just great recognition by Jarvis.
Q. Can you address your team's confidence level right now? It's got to be sky high?
PHIL TURNER: Well, we try to stay in the middle.
BARRY STEWART: I think the team's confidence is very high right now. Wins cure all things. So right now the team's playing with a lot of confidence, our starters, our bench is coming in and doing some things, and it's just helping the whole team.
Q. This was your third game in three days, their second. But it seemed like you had maybe a little more energy in the second half getting to a lot of 50 50 balls. Can you talk about how your legs were as the game went on?
PHIL TURNER: We know what we were playing for. We've played a couple of games back to back, but playing for a championship is motivation to just keep pushing through. Of course, it is kind of tough on your body, but we train in the off season for times like this. A couple of games back to back is not going to keep us from playing our best.
Q. Will fatigue be an issue tomorrow?
BARRY STEWART: I don't think so. The way Coach is rotating us, it's helping our legs a lot. We got to rest the first game a whole lot more than usual. I think our benches are coming in and adding to.
Q. Last few times against LSU they basically single covered you, gave no defensive help. What's that like for you to know that if you work in the post, it's just you against other guys? Obviously, you got them all in foul trouble?
JARVIS VARNARDO: My eyes lit up, you know. I knew coming into the game that they weren't going to help our shooters, so I just had to make a quick move and score.
Q. There was a stretch in the second half where your bench was in the game in full force. You guys were on the sideline. I don't know if they maintained the lead, built the lead, but it seemed like they kept it going pretty well. I mean, how big was that for you guys?
JARVIS VARNARDO: It was huge for us. Without no bench, we probably wouldn't be able to win. I mean in a tournament like this. Our benches came in, added to, and that's what we want from them.
Q. It felt like the second half with the fouls there was a bit of disparity. Did you feel like LSU y'all started to get in their heads a little bit?
PHIL TURNER: I don't think so. LSU is a veteran team. They stick together pretty much. But our coach did a great job recognizing their bigs were in foul trouble and we kept feeding the post. We knew they were going to have a hard time defending Jarvis one on one. And that game plan worked for us.
Q. As a shot blocker, how have you gotten better this year? Seems like you're staying out of foul trouble even more even when guys jumped at you like today. What have you done differently?
JARVIS VARNARDO: Just the same thing I have been doing. Being that we play small smart, I can't afford to get in foul trouble that much. Being that we play smart, I can't just go foul them. I play position defense, and try to alter the shot, not block it.
CLAUDE FELTON: We'll excuse the student athletes and continue with questions for Coach Stansbury.
Q. You went with your bench in a lost key moments, pretty wholesale changes there. How confident are you in those guys and how important have they been to where you are right now?
COACH STANSBURY: I think it's very obvious that they're very important. I've got to show some confidence in them, too. I left them, not just this game, they've been in games for the last two and a half weeks and very important moments.
This time of year is where your bench has to be its best. Our bench, no question, is playing its best. It helps your chemistry. Everybody's playing together. And that bench is coming in and adding to. And your question earlier, I think it was like they cut it back to two, and that bench spurred it back up to eight in that stretch there. That was huge for us. To register starters and your bench able to expand the lead some.
Q. Everybody talked about that beet being the ultimate shot blocker in the NCAA. Your guy isn't chopped liver. He blocked 7 shots today, just probably at least 7 more. He's a pretty good player inside, isn't he?
COACH STANSBURY: He's a pretty good player. He is. I'm glad he's on our team.
You know, the thing I think is continuing to make him better is his effort. He attacks every rebound. He's really active. I see a little bit of that in him right now. When you're able to rest him with your bench, that's important. Again, Brian Johnson came in today, played 12 minutes and got six rebounds. That's huge.
Q. Going back to your bench. When you played LSU in Starkville, Tasmin had 41. Today you were able to bring Kodi in and put a big body on him - that was something you couldn't do back then because Kodi wasn't playing well. Talk about bringing Kodi in and putting the big body and keeping Tas outside?
COACH STANSBURY: We tried to guard him three ways. First time, in Baton Rouge we started the game guarding with Jarvis. Didn't work very well. Second time, we started guarding him with Phil. And that obviously didn't work very well.
Tonight we had two options. We were going to mix it up. Number one, we thought we went with Kodi we'd have a bigger body that could play 15 to 20 minutes a game on him. In those other moments there's moments when we wanted Jarvis on him just to mix it up, like Phil said.
We started going at him. It changed Tasmin's mentality. He went at field twice there in that post, made the switch. And I again, I think he shot a jumpshot the next time down and missed it. The versatility and flexibility after that is huge for us right now.
Q. Obviously, you have to ask the question about what this win does for your NCAA chances, or do you just focus on if you win tomorrow you don't have to worry about anyone thinks of you?
COACH STANSBURY: That's what our focus is. I learned a long time ago for me to worry about things I can't control is an absolute waste of energy.
You guys y'all can make the point. I don't know. I know this. We're 7 1 against the east. 7 1 against the east. We're 9 7 coming into this. And being 9 7, two of those games were double overtime losses.
Well, we would have the second best record in the league a. And one of them was to LSU. Four road wins. 4 4 on the road in the SEC. And you go into the finals of the SEC Tournament. So you start breaking that down who becomes the third and fourth team to get in. You guys make your case. As long as you make the right one (laughing).
Q. Jarvis had a good game, but can you talk about Barry Stewart and him being able to get to the line and being aggressive?
COACH STANSBURY: Let me tell you what, everybody misses Barry Stewart. You look at that stat sheet, see how many points he scores. It's very obvious. The last two games he's been really good offensively making some shots and doing some things. He doesn't get the credit he deserves defensively.
Tonight you look at that shot chart with Thornton, and he is the most difficult player to guard one on one in this league. He's going to get some points. Again, he's 5 for 19. He scores 14 points and Stew was on most of the night.
There are two big guys, Mitchell and Thornton, 5 for 19, 7 for 18. It was a pretty evenly balanced game. Both teams played turnover free. We had six turnovers. They had 7. One difference in rebounding. We shoot 33%. They shoot 31.
The huge difference was we attacked them one other way versus the way we did in the start. We threw it to the block and got them in foul trouble. We shot too many threes in Starkville against them. With Thornton and Thornton and Temple up into you, had too many contested threes.
Tonight we drove the ball and didn't settle for three pointers. I would say 16 attempts would be a season low for us. Where's my stat man? I'd say it's a season low with 16 attempts from the three point line is low. Enabled us to get to the free throw line 35 times compared to LSU's 13 times.
When that stat right there tells you two things. You're getting the ball to the paint two different ways, from the pass, which is the way we did it the first time. But this time we got it on on the pass and got it there on the dribble, and that was huge for us
Q. Having to play three games in three days. Talk about what it's like from a coaching standpoint. You'll have to sit here and watch the winners, kiss the wife goodbye, say see you Sunday and start looking at film?
COACH STANSBURY: I can promise you I'd like that problem a lot more than the other problem you have. That's for sure. That's a good problem to have.
You know, I wouldn't be kidding anybody to say that the fourth game there's not some fatigue, but I can promise you it will not be an excuse. I think our team as much as any team in this tournament, because I do have a bench and I'm willing to play this bench right now.
We'll be fresh legged. We'll be fresh mentally tomorrow. If we win by 20 or lose by 20, it's not going to be because of fatigue. We're going to come out and fight and give it everything we've got and see what happens.
Q. Just address part of this? This win was a lot different than the other four in your most recent winning streak. The other four were in the '80s, except for one. And you were really stroking the ball from the outside. Can you talk about adapting maybe what was different about this game?
COACH STANSBURY: I think it shows the maturity of our basketball team a little bit. As I've said again, it started two weeks ago, three weeks ago. I thought our team we were starting to get better defensively. We were starting to rebound the ball a little bit better.
It doesn't take one of two plays defensively to help win a lot of games. We've had close losses. Lose by three at Tennessee, another close loss. One play here or there is the difference between winning and losing.
But our team has started making more of those plays again. Offensively I thought we showed more maturity. Slowing it down. Making it a game some. And not make it a free for all shooting threes.
Our advantage was in the paint. Every time you shoot a three against a very good defensive team, best in the SEC, leads the SEC in three point field goal percentage defense. Is an opportunity that's taken away from us to get a foul or get a higher percentage shot.
On our guys knew when to push on that gas tonight and to let off at the right time. A month ago we probably couldn't have done that. So I think we're getting better in that area.
